We Start Now were approached by electro musician Nonagon to pitch a concept for the artwork and design of his debut album, the Messiah Auditions.

A mix of dark electro and beautiful brooding beats, the title alone was evocative and gave us some great ideas about how to approach the look and feel of the album.

We initially played with visual ideas inspired by the large hadron collider, a wonder of science that amongst other things has allowed the world to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, a particle that gives mass to other particles, sometimes known as the ‘god particle’. This seemed a nice fit for the concept of messiah auditions, but we had another idea too:

In the most prosaic of settings, wondrous, weird, dangerous and bizarre happenings are taking place behind closed suburban doors. In a garage, somewhere deep in the Australian suburbs, a big bang of universal proportions is taking place. A low pulsing sound and intense, onimous light is leaking out from inside the garage, the kids from Nonagon, stand outside looking in. Do they dare enter?

Nonagon loved both concepts, but chose our garage freak out and we were lucky enough to be able to turn it into reality.

Thanks to Bacchus Marsh storm chaser John Porter, who let us shoot at his home, we took a long exposure nighttime shot of the Nonagon crew about to enter the mystical garage.

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Once all the photography was done, it was time to start playing with images and type, we carried through the theme of keeping the outside of the album beautiful and simple, revealing an abstract light filled surprise inside.

We were really happy with the end result and had the rare delight of closely realising our original vision.

You can download and purchase the CD at Nonogon’s bandcamp page and West Art Now will be talking to Nonagon soon about all things music. Happy reading!